As I get out of bed I turn and study the maidens. Sif and I are the first two out of the bed, and the other maidens are still recovering from the night of bliss we experienced at each other’s hands, mouths, and other less wholesome body parts.
There is a look of lazy lust on the faces of Velvet and Shelavaranda, while Thevah’s look of lust is anything but lazy. Belah and Binah are holding hands and as I study them a small part of me imagines them double-teaming me. The thought is a pleasant one, though I’m able to muster the willpower needed to overcome the urge to make it a reality.
Chyliss looks the least blissed out, but that’s only because she’s quickly regaining her wits. I can sense her wits returning to her, and at the same time I can sense her studying herself. I am a bit impressed when she begins to wonder if something in her has changed, as she carefully gets up and inspects herself. She’s noticed something before Sif has! I unconsciously nod at the thronemaiden, having not expected any of the maidens to detect the energy coursing through them in any capacity.
“Alright my liege, we have a busy day today.” Sif says, even as she watches her fellow thronemaidens. I nod at her, smiling as I notice her continued obliviousness to the energy coursing through her body. I can see the energy inside of her, though it’s not always easy or plainly visible. Sometimes I need to look at her heart to see it, where I can faintly see the stuff swirling inside of her. I glance up at her face, even as I move over to the bed and help Chyliss get up.
“So what’s actually on today’s schedule?” I ask, curiously. Sif smiles as I ask that.
“Well for a few days, I will be busy sorting through the countless proposals that are even now being delivered to the palace. Your tasks will be… different.” She tells me. She is correct about the proposals, I can distantly hear countless servants tirelessly at work sorting the varied proposals I have already received, with more appearing every second.
“On your end, the primary thing I want you to do is to think about the positions you’d like to assign to each of your top thronemaidens.” Sif tells me, and this comment rouses our companions. They all watch and listen to Sif’s explanation as she expands on this remark.
“Thronemaidens serve at your pleasure Your Majesty. The thronemaidens you’ve met so far, Thevah, Velvet, Binah, Belah, Chyliss, Shelanvaranda, and myself, are your top thronemaidens. We’ve proven ourselves over millennia of service to the empire. However, the thronemaidens are loyal first and foremost to the emperor. We are your personal bodyguards and servants above all else.” Sif explains, the other thronemaidens paying close attention to her words.
“Your duty, one of them anyway, is to give us our assignments within your government. There are seven critical roles you can assign to us: ‘Enthroned’, ‘Personal Bodyguard’, ‘Crownguard’, ‘Keeper of the Vault’, ‘Palace Security’, ‘Field Agency’, and ‘Head of Initiates.” The red-haired woman states, speaking confidently and smiling at me as she feels the close attention I’m paying her.
“The first task, ‘Enthroned’ is the most visible and the most traditionally prized position all thronemaidens aspire to. Your ‘Enthroned’ thronemaiden will spend any time you are holding court on top of you, riding you as a symbol of your virality and power. When you are not in court this individual will serve as an extra personal bodyguard. This position tends to go to the first thronemaiden, to… Well, by tradition it would be mine as I am the head of the thronemaidens. That said, as always the choice is yours. I don’t think I need to explain what a personal bodyguard does.” She says with an amused smile. She explained to me that she was the head of the thronemaidens, both their leader and their most skilled member, during the free time I had yesterday between arriving in Drinn and having dinner with some of the hegemonies and no one disagreed with her assessment which is a testament to her skills one way or another.
“The position of ‘Crownsguard’ is a bit more involved than the position of ‘Personal Bodyguard’ as it involves protecting your wives. This position, on a practical level, also matters more than the position of ‘Personal Bodyguard’ does, since you are a nova and far more powerful than any previous emperor has ever been. I recommend you pick someone who balances martial skill with a diplomatic temperament, as the ‘Crownsguard’ will interact with your wives more than you do, some days.” Sif says, thoughtfully.
“After that, you have the position of ‘Keeper of the Vault’, which is… honestly a bit of a misleading name. You have multiple vaults, and the thronemaiden assigned to this role will be tasked with securing the vaults and protecting the most valuable treasures you possess.” The head thronemaiden explains.
“The final positions are ‘Palace Security’, ‘Head of the Field Agency’, and ‘Head of Initiates”. The first position is tasked with securing the palaces you and the harem live in, then there’s the thronemaiden tasked with overseeing the various field missions and agents assigned to them. The last position is tasked with educating future thronemaidens and screening those who wish to be thronemaidens.” Sif announces, summarizing the final three roles. She then falls silent and looks at me curiously. I sense her faintly wondering who I’ll be assigning to what roles.
I pause and consider who’d be suitable for what positions. My first thoughts are to assign Sif to the position of “Enthroned”, as she deserves to be rewarded for her tireless labor during the search for me.
The first thronemaidens to come to mind for the position of “Personal Bodyguard” are Velvet, Chyliss, and Shelvaranda, even though none of them have the imposing physiques of Belah or Binah. All three of them have abilities or personalities that could allow them to be skilled bodyguards.
The position of “Crownsguard” is a no-brainer for me. It’s got to be Thevah, who is beautiful and graceful, coupled with having a diplomatic personality that would make her good for both protecting and dealing with the members of my harem.
“Keeper of the Vault” and “Palace Security” should probably go to the twins, though I’d need to converse with them to figure out which would be better suited to each specific position. The final two positions, the ones in charge of field missions and in charge of the initiation and training of new thronemaidens are both ones well suited to Velvet and Chyliss… I spend a full few minutes deliberating, while the thronemaidens recover from last night’s activities and get up. At the same time, Star enters the room and smiles at us.
“These are not easy decisions…” I remark, which makes all of the thronemaidens smile. This time the figure who speaks is not Sif but Star.
“Ah, did you tell him about picking your roles?” She asks, a charming smile on her face as she speaks. The thronemaidens smile at her and Velvet nods.
“Yeah, I’m not surprised he’s, you’re, struggling with this, your highness. It’s not an easy set of choices you have to make. But we do have other things on the schedule for today as well.” She says, as she turns to me and motions for me to come with her. Sif is quick to say farewell, while the other thronemaidens quickly get ready. Less than five minutes after Sif departs to go over to wherever she will be working to sort through the proposals, Star, the remaining thronemaidens and I find ourselves walking through the palace.
“Alright sire, we need to get you outfitted with some ethertech.” Star tells me, even as we pass by servants and guards in the middle of their routines. I detect that this is a partial falsehood, somewhere between the truth and a lie. We’re in the middle of a long hallway and there are plenty of open doors that allow me to glance into other parts of the palace and see rooms ranging from small armories to large entryways and entrances or exits in and out of the palace.
When I get to glance outside I am able to see massive gardens, sprawling courtyards, and secretive exits and entrances into and out of the palace. Whenever we get to see a sprawling courtyard I momentarily see massive ships hanging above them and warriors rappelling down from the ships or even teleporting from them onto the surface of the courtyards. I instinctively realize that I am witnessing reinforcements arriving to help further secure Drinn, as well as to begin the critical work of turning Drinn into the seat of the transitional government as we get my business in order and figure out exactly what I want to do as far as things like deciding on the composition of my harem, the location of my capital, and other early business as far as the empire goes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At the same time I see way more guards and servants than I did before, and on occasion I even see hegemonic princesses or the daughters of prominent noble houses. More often than not the princesses spot us and approach but they are soundly rebuffed by the thronemaidens, who state that we are on important imperial business.
After a few minutes of walking we head down a deep stairwell and go deep underground. At one point I am told to shut my eyes and take Velvet’s hand, shortly after which I see a flash of light bright enough that it ignores the fact that my eyes are shut, and my senses alert me to the reality that I’ve somehow entered a new area far from the castle. Magic, presumably. My thronemaidens and I descend deeper and deeper beneath the surface of the strange world we’re on, for several minutes.
After perhaps half an hour of walking we find ourselves in front of a gigantic door made of some metal that superficially resembles obsidian. The metal is also weirdly cold, and it’s almost chilly down here. Calling the thing a door is a bit of an overstatement, however, as it’s more like a door-shaped lump of dark metal that fills a hole in the wall of a deep underground chamber. There isn’t even a handle or a door knob of some sort…
“Alright master, we need you for this part.” Belah tells me, walking up to the door and standing beside it. I look at her curiously, but I decide to approach the door and touch it. When I do I feel the coldness and solidity of the metal in front of me and I smile as I realize what this might be: a vault. I glance at the maidens and the oracle with a soft smile on my face as I ask them a question.
“This is a vault, isn’t it?” I ask, which makes Star’s eyes widen with delight. She nods but doesn’t actually say anything. I turn back to face the door and I close my eyes as I place my palm flatly against it and begin to push it. I am a bit surprised when the door doesn’t immediately open, as my instincts suggested this was like the omegatech vault and had some component that was keyed to me specifically somehow. That the door resists being opened by normal, human amounts of force is less surprising. This is a vault, after all, it’s meant to resist normal methods of intrusion.
I begin to push the door with more force, dipping my, figurative, toes into the waters of super strength and I feel the door continue to resist my strength. It takes me a few moments of slowly using more and more force before the door is finally pushed inward and I am able to step past it and into a grand chamber where a number of different people work, all of whom turn to look at me and smile.
I am standing inside of a massive circular area, one divided up into different sections inhabited by various people. The area is divided into four different quarters, and each quarter is massive, perhaps a quarter of a mile wide. Numerous figures, most of whom wear clothes, are working on different things, and as I study them my guards and Star step into the room behind me. One of the figures working on something close to the entrance I just opened up puts her tools down and walks up to me, and only stops when Chyliss forces her to stop and be searched before stepping any further. As the thronemaiden begins to pat her down she speaks to me in a warm and energetic voice.
“Hello, your majesty! Welcome to your vault. Well… One of them, at least. I’m Thalace tel’Aaire!” She says, even as she occasionally glares at Chyliss when the thronemaiden reaches into one of the pockets on her and pulls out some tool or oddly shaped device. That last name, tel’Aaire, is a noble name and as I hear it I grin.
“It’s nice to meet you! The tel’Aaires are nobles, right?” I ask, and she looks delighted when she hears me ask that. She nods at me and approaches me when Chyliss frees her, thus signaling that she’s not equipped with anything potentially dangerous.
She is wearing a curious blue outfit that clearly serves to protect her body, fashioned from what appears to be cut-up blue crystals and a circlet centered around a large pink crystal. Her hair is a light pink color and she has large bluish-green eyes.
“Yes we are! My house comes from Serenity, which means that up until about a week ago we swore fealty to the tel’Knirs. Now… Well, now we swear fealty to you directly.” She says, cheerily. That remark about Serenity, one of the places I could have first appeared in and used as at least a transitional capital, is an interesting tidbit that I did not know until just now. I file it away even as I respond to what Thalace has said.
“That’s very interesting! I hear Serenity is incredibly beautiful.” I tell her, which is an honest remark. As she speaks I hear the voice of Shelavaranda in the back of my mind.
“Nobles are common in Etherscape. In fact, we have estimated that at least three million different noble households will be offering at least one of their daughters to you in marriage, my liege. Thalace however is… Well, she’s a bit different.” Shelavaranda tells me, telepathically, even as Thalace offers me her hand and tells me she’ll give me a tour of the vault. I let out a quiet laugh, before Velvet apologetically steps in and tells Thalace that we are here on a tight schedule.
“Though… You could come with us, if you wanted. Do you have time to take a break?” Velvet offers, as a bit of a compromise. Thalace thinks about this for a moment before smiling and moving right next to me. She wraps her arm around mine and smiles at Velvet.
“Sure! Where are we heading?” She asks, which seems to catch Velvet off guard. For half a moment I wonder why Velvet offered this noble the ability to see where we’re going, when she and the other thronemaidens shut down hegemonic princesses, before I get told an answer by Sif despite the distance separating us.
“Thalace is both an imperial scientist with high grade security clearance, and a noble who swears fealty to you directly. She is also, in many respects, more valuable to the government than many hegemonic princesses due to the potency of her talent and the usability of her creations beyond Etherscape.” Sif explains, her voice clearly audible in the back of my mind. I hear this and wonder what she does and what she creates.
“Thalace is also one of your potential wives.” Sif casually reveals, causing me to audibly laugh, to the confusion of my companions but I simply refuse to elaborate on I laughed, a decision which makes Sif laugh, though not aloud.
“We’re heading to the back of the vault. Beyond this chamber.” Chyliss tells both Thalace and I. This, to my surprise, seems to satisfy and stun Thalace, whose grip on my arm tightens. We pass by other scientists, and as I glance at some of them I get to see them staring at me with a range of emotions on their faces. There are men here who stare at me enviously, and there are women who look at me with a variety of emotions on their faces, such as with lust, with annoyance, and with curiosity. In many cases they feel more than one of those emotions, and in a handful of cases they even feel all three!
We eventually make it to the other end of the large area. We find ourselves in front of a wall made of the same material as the door leading in and out of the vault, but this time there are two strangely shaped holes etched into the wall. Belah and Binah step forward and hold their hands out for a split second. Two weapons, a giant hammer for Binah and a sword for Belah, appear in their hands and they place the weapons into the holes, placing them sideways into the openings. The wall vibrates for a second as it seems to process the tools that were just inserted into it, before it begins to slide open and reveal a new area.
The room that the sliding wall reveals is pitch black but that’s not enough to obscure my senses. As I peer past the sliding wall into the newly revealed room I see a gargantuan room, one larger than any single room I’ve seen to date, filled with three strange objects, one of which is so huge I cannot see past it. In the middle of the room is a massive spaceship, one that is taller than some mountains and is the widest artificial object I’ve ever seen other than the buildings I’ve been in during my adventures.
As I study the spaceship I hear a curious noise come from very close by and I turn in the direction of the sound. I find its source almost immediately, as the source of the sound is Thalace herself, and I am surprised to see goggles of some sort beginning to exist on her face.
She is not creating them by hand or, as far as I can tell, using some ability new to me to make them as I’m fairly certain if she were, my ability to mimic powers would be supplying me with whatever she’s doing… I quickly remember metacreativity and wonder if that’s what she’s doing, before I turn my attention back to the room and the other objects in them.
Aside from that I can see a pair of objects which float in midair: a sword and a staff. The sword is an ornate thing with a glamorous looking hilt and a large blade that reminds me of a greatsword. The staff is a long silver-colored, elegantly fashioned metal object that is almost as long as I was tall before my transformation, coming in at about five feet and a few inches long. Both objects are slowly moving in circles, following the same bizarre flight path: forming a perfect circle in midair.
I step into the room, and as I do I feel Thalace let go of my arm. When I glance back at her I am a bit surprised to see her mouth agape as she studies the gigantic spaceship. The goggles on her face are lit up and seem to be giving her the ability to peer into the dark and make out what is hidden in it. My thronemaidens gently push the two of us into the room, before stepping in behind us. As they enter the chamber the wall behind us begins to vibrate shut, and in seconds we are all alone in the depths of the vault. I glance at the floating objects and I decide to embrace my role as emperor and look noble.
I lift my hand and point it in the direction of the staff. The object, floating in circles beside the sword, vibrates for a second as it slows to a stop. The blade, still floating of seemingly its own accord, hits it and comes to a stop. A second later the staff begins to fly towards me.
The objects are exactly halfway between the ship and myself. When the staff begins to fly towards me it takes it about five seconds in total. One second is spent resisting “Nanokinesis”, and the other four are spent closing the distance between its orbit and myself. When the staff hits my hand I feel it gently impact my outstretched limb and I wrap my fingers around it, all while smiling even as I feel the object begin to fill me with etheric energy. Chyliss looks at the object in my hands and smiles.
“The imperial scepter… A symbol of the undisputable might of the emperors.” She says, as she studies the regal symbol of both my might and the might of my ancestors.
“That, my liege, is a mighty emblem of Etherscape’s mightiest warriors and most ardent defenders. It has been wielded by countless emperors after being given to us by one of the ascendants who signed the anti-ascendant-aggression pact, a powerful cosmic god, as a way to cement the power of the queen’s bloodline. It can strengthen ethermancers and ethermancy!” Shelavarandra reveals as she studies the regal symbol of imperial potency. The next speaker surprises me, because it is Thalace with an intriguing reveal.
“That ship is the ‘Emperor’s Dreadnaught’, isn’t it? I thought it was lost during the interregnum…” She mutters, referring to the period of etherscapian history that occurred between the death of the last emperor and my reveal last night. The thronemaidens all smile at the shock etched on Thalace’s face.
“Well, the truth is a bit more complicated than that. But rest assured it has been repaired and updated with all of the most recent, cutting edge ethertech. Emperor Ignacio is going to love it!” Binah says, talking like I’m not here for a second and making me smile. Binah is speaking with the confidence of a child who still believes in some fanciful legend. There is something charming about her excitement and seeing it fills me with curiosity. That said, there’s still the curious weapon floating in midair. I begin to approach it, staff in hand, followed by my servants and Thalace alike.